A universal space-time architecture for multiple-antenna aided systems

In this tutorial, we first review the family of conventional multiple-antenna techniques, and then we provide a general overview of the recent concept of the powerful Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) family based on a universal Space-Time Shift Keying (STSK) philosophy. When appropriately configured, the proposed STSK scheme has the potential of outperforming conventional MIMO arrangements

Design guidelines for spatial modulation

A new class of low-complexity, yet energyefficient Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques, namely the family of Spatial Modulation (SM) aided MIMOs (SM-MIMO) has emerged. These systems are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions (i.e. the antenna indices) as an additional dimension invoked for transmitting information, apart from the traditional Amplitude and Phase Modulation (APM). SM is capable of efficiently operating in diverse MIMO configurations in the context of future communication systems. It constitutes a promising transmission candidate for large-scale MIMO design and for the indoor optical wireless communication whilst relying on a single-Radio Frequency (RF) chain. Moreover, SM may also be viewed as an entirely new hybrid modulation scheme, which is still in its infancy. This paper aims for providing a general survey of the SM design framework as well as of its intrinsic limits. In particular, we focus our attention on the associated transceiver design, on spatial constellation optimization, on link adaptation techniques, on distributed/ cooperative protocol design issues, and on their meritorious variants

Generalized space-time shift keying designed for flexible diversity-, multiplexing- and complexity-tradeoffs

In this paper, motivated by the recent concept of Spatial Modulation (SM), we propose a novel Generalized Space-Time Shift Keying (G-STSK) architecture, which acts as a unified Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) framework. More specifically, our G-STSK scheme is based on the rationale that P out of Q dispersion matrices are selected and linearly combined in conjunction with the classic PSK/QAM modulation, where activating P out of Q dispersion matrices provides an implicit means of conveying information bits in addition to the classic modem. Due to its substantial flexibility, our G-STSK framework includes diverse MIMO arrangements, such as SM, Space-Shift Keying (SSK), Linear Dispersion Codes (LDCs), Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) and Bell Lab’s Layered Space-Time (BLAST) scheme. Hence it has the potential of subsuming all of them, when flexibly adapting a set of system parameters. Moreover, we also derive the Discrete-input Continuous-output Memoryless Channel (DCMC) capacity for our G-STSK scheme, which serves as the unified capacity limit, hence quantifying the capacity of the class of MIMO arrangements. Furthermore, EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) chart analysis is used for designing our G-STSK scheme and for characterizing its iterative decoding convergence

OFDMA/SC-FDMA aided space-time shift keying for dispersive multi-user scenarios

Motivated by the recent concept of Space-Time Shift Keying (STSK) developed for achieving a flexible diversity versus multiplexing gain trade-off, we propose a novel Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)/Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) aided multi-user STSK scheme for frequency-selective channels. The proposed OFDMA/SC-FDMA STSK scheme is capable of providing an improved performance in dispersive channels, while supporting multiple users in a multiple antenna aided wireless system. Furthermore, the scheme has the inherent potential of benefitting from the low-complexity single-stream Maximum-likelihood (ML) detector. Both an uncoded and a sophisticated near-capacity coded OFDMA/SC-FDMA STSK scheme were studied and their performances were compared in multiuser wideband Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) scenarios. Explicitly, OFDMA/SC-FDMA aided STSK exhibits an excellent performance even in the presence of channel impairments due to the frequency-selectivity of wideband channels and proves to be a beneficial choice for high capacity multi-user MIMO systems

MC-CDMA aided multi-user space-time shift keying in wideband channels

In this paper, we propose multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA)-aided space-time shift keying (STSK) for mitigating the performance erosion of the classic STSK scheme in dispersive channels, while supporting multiple users. The codewords generated by the STSK scheme are appropriately spread in frequency-domain (FD) and transmitted over a number of parallel frequency-?at subchannels. We propose a new receiver architecture amalgamating the single-stream maximum-likelihood (ML) detector of the STSK system and the multiuser detector (MUD) of the MC-CDMA system. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated for transmission over frequency-selective channels in both uncoded and channel-coded scenarios. The results of our simulations demonstrate that the proposed scheme overcomes the channel impairments imposed by wideband channels and exhibits near-capacity performance in a channel-coded scenario

Coherent versus non-coherent decode-and-forward relaying aided cooperative space-time shift keying

Motivated by the recent concept of Space-Time Shift Keying (STSK), we propose a novel cooperative STSK family, which is capable of achieving a flexible rate-diversity tradeoff, in the context of cooperative space-time transmissions. More specifically, we first propose a Coherent cooperative STSK (CSTSK) scheme, where each Relay Node (RN) activates Decode-and-Forward (DF) transmissions, depending on the success or failure of Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC). We invoke a bitto- STSK mapping rule, where according to the input bits, one of the Q pre-assigned dispersion vectors is activated to implicitly convey log2(Q) bits, which are transmitted in combination with the classic log2(L)-bit modulated symbol. Additionally, we introduce a beneficial dispersion vector design, which enables us to dispense with symbol-level Inter-Relay Synchronization (IRS). Furthermore, the Destination Node (DN) is capable of jointly detecting the signals received from the source-destination and relay-destination links, using a low-complexity single-stream-based Maximum Likelihood (ML) detector, which is an explicit benefit of our Inter-Element Interference (IEI)-free system model. More importantly, as a benefit of its design flexibility, our cooperative CSTSK arrangement enables us to adapt the number of the RNs, the transmission rate as well as the achievable diversity order. Moreover, we also propose a Differentially-encoded cooperative STSK (DSTSK) arrangement, which dispenses with CSI estimation at any of the nodes, while retaining the fundamental benefits of the cooperative CSTSK scheme

Structured Dispersion Matrices From Division Algebra Codes for Space-Time Shift Keying

We propose a novel method of constructing Dispersion Matrices (DM) for Coherent Space-Time Shift Keying (CSTSK) relying on arbitrary PSK signal sets by exploiting codes from division algebras. We show that classic codes from Cyclic Division Algebras (CDA) may be interpreted as DMs conceived for PSK signal sets. Hence various benefits of CDA codes such as their ability to achieve full diversity are inherited by CSTSK. We demonstrate that the proposed CDA based DMs are capable of achieving a lower symbol error ratio than the existing DMs generated using the capacity as their optimization objective function for both perfect and imperfect channel estimation

Decision Fusion in Space-Time Spreading aided Distributed MIMO WSNs

In this letter, we propose space-time spreading (STS) of local sensor decisions before reporting them over a wireless multiple access channel (MAC), in order to achieve flexible balance between diversity and multiplexing gain as well as eliminate any chance of intrinsic interference inherent in MAC scenarios. Spreading of the sensor decisions using dispersion vectors exploits the benefits of multi-slot decision to improve low-complexity diversity gain and opportunistic throughput. On the other hand, at the receive side of the reporting channel, we formulate and compare optimum and sub-optimum fusion rules for arriving at a reliable conclusion.Simulation results demonstrate gain in performance with STS aided transmission from a minimum of 3 times to a maximum of 6 times over performance without STS.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Successive-relaying-aided decode-and-forward coherent versus noncoherent cooperative multicarrier space–time shift keying

Abstract—Successive-relaying-aided (SR) cooperative multi-carrier (MC) space–time shift keying (STSK) is proposed for frequency-selective channels. We invoke SR to mitigate the typical 50% throughput loss of conventional half-duplex relaying schemes and MC code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) to circumvent the dispersive effects of wireless channels and to reduce the SR-induced interference. The distributed relay terminals form two virtual antenna arrays (VAAs), and the source node (SN) successively transmits frequency-domain (FD) spread signals to one of the VAAs, in addition to directly transmitting to the destination node (DN). The constituent relay nodes (RNs) of each VAA activate cyclic-redundancy-checking-based (CRC) selective decode-and-forward (DF) relaying. The DN can jointly detect the signals received via the SN-to-DN and VAA-to-DN links using a low-complexity single-stream-based joint maximum-likelihood (ML) detector. We also propose a differentially encoded cooperative MC-CDMA STSK scheme to facilitate communications over hostile dispersive channels without requiring channel estimation (CE). Dispensing with CE is important since the relays cannot be expected to altruistically estimate the SN-to-RN links for simply supporting the source. Furthermore, we propose soft-decision-aided serially concatenated recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) and unity-rate-coded (URC) cooperative MC STSK and investigate its performance in both coherent and noncoherent scenarios